The present invention provides a fire extinguisher of conveniently small size for use in aircraft, automobiles, recreational vehicles, pleasure boats, homes and the like without requiring a fluorocarbon propellant (which may be evironmentally undesirable) or an inert gas which is characterized by a drop in dispensing pressure when it is used independently.
Typical of recent developments in fire extinguishers is one described in a patent to Owens U.S. Pat. No. 4,014,799 which states that volatile fluorohalocarbons containing bromine (such as CBrF.sub.3, CBrClF.sub.2, CBr.sub.2 F.sub.2 and CF.sub.2 Br-CF.sub.2 Br) have now been found strikingly more effective in extiguishing fires than are the older fireinert gases. Also a U.S. Pat. No. 3,822,207 to Howard and Lomas which states that chloropentafluoroethane (a halogenated alkane without bromine) is a general purpose fire extinguishing agent of low toxicity. The problems with these prior compositions are that the containers heretofore available are not of sufficiently small size, simple, handoperable and economical to permit household use. To the extent that these problems are overcome in the extinguisher of U.S. Pat. No. 3,804,759 to Becker and Furlow, the small size fire extinguisher has all the undesirable factors of the aerosol industry product.